[BCEly]

Why not use the Alt Out rather than Mix1??

[BCEly]

Are you sure the channel is assigned to the chosen mix (P24 of manual)

[BCEly]

Sounds like the old USB3 issue to me.

The A&H QU series and Intel USB3 don’t sit well together.

Some users have disabled the USB 3 functionality on their units via the BIOS – Others can’t as the newer gen Intel BIOS/Chips doesn’t allow you to.

There’s no long term fix as A&H blame Intel and Intel say they won’t resolve the issue. It’s a “Mexican Stand off” and it’s the QU Users that suffer.

I for one would dump my QU mixer if I hadn’t paid so much for it.

[BCEly]

Pressing the mix button will return all faders to the position you have left them at but you don’t save a mix to a button.

If you want to save the current settings use the scenes function and also plug a USB flash drive in and backup your settings to that.

[BCEly]

I’ve not used IEM before but I guess it’s the same principle as wedge monitors.

You have mix 1 thru 4 for mono outs and mixes 5/6, 7/8 and 9/10 stereo mixes. All at line level.

So just choose mix, set the ‘master’ level for the mix and then use the individual channel slides to output what you want in each mix.

Also, use the FX 1 return if you want some reverb in your ears.

You could also run in an ambient mic to pick up the room if you like some of that in your ears as well.

[BCEly]

It’s quite straight forward and I think you’re getting confused.

When you ‘recall’ either a PEQ or a Channel setup from a library it gets applied to that channel but it then doesn’t ‘indicate’ that when you return to the channel so the last ‘library’ used will always be highlighted.

Easy test, make some ‘random’ change PEQ change to Channel 1 and then ‘recall’ the SM58 PEQ library. You should see the PEQ change to the one suggested for a SM58. Do the same with your Keys channel. Go back to the PEQ on the vox Channel 1 and you should see it’s unchanged and does not look the same as the keys channel.

For the reverb.

Assuming you have the reverb FX loaded into FX 1

select the FX1 and set the master slider to 0 – This is your master send to the FX processor. Then move the individual vox channel sliders to ‘send’ differing amounts of the signal into the FX processor. That the ‘dry’ vocal going in….

Now, press the L/R key and select the top ‘page’ (the one that starts ST1 and includes FX 1 Rtn etc)

Use the FX return slider to state how much ‘FX 1’ to ‘return’ into the L/R mix. That’s the ‘wet’ vocal with FX applied going into your mix

If you have VOX monitors on Mix 1 for example, you can select that mix instead of L/R and do the same to return some ‘wet’ vox into the monitors.

[BCEly]

Do A&H have a working solution for the distortion on USB3 ports yet ?

I’m on a windows 10 platform with as laptop that only has USB3 and no way of disabling the XHCI in BIOS

[BCEly]

I continue to have this issue on a HP laptop with only USB3 ports and no way of disabling XHCI in the BIOS.

Laptop is basically a brick when it comes to using it with my QU-16.

A&H have blamed Intel and appear to be doing nothing about it.

Any minute now, USB2 ports on laptops will be a thing of the passed and we’ll be no where.

A&H have their head buried in the sand on this one !!

[BCEly]

Hi Folks,

This is all very interesting and it’s good to know that A&H are looking at it whilst they haven’t said that publicly or in any of the emails I’ve had with their support team – And there’s been a few !

Recording to USB isn’t an issue, I did a concert on Friday with an 11 piece band and three singers and there wasn’t a hitch.

It’s USB playback from a laptop that’s the issue. It’s very impractical to convert all files I’m given by a client to .WAV, rename to suit A&Hs naming convention and play in the order required. The lack of any real disk/track management in the firmware or even simple play-list indicates that this isn’t what the facility is intended for. It’s great for a virtual sound check and saves time in that respect but I have to playback from a laptop.

My laptop is 6th generation and I came the the same realisation as ‘Sephult’ in so far as the EHCI options have been removed. There is nowhere in the BIOS (or software) to revert the USB3 back to a USB2 and switching out the drivers just disables other devices.

[BCEly]

Hi Giga

I guess that’s a fair enough question.

I did do my homework and was told by many sources including A&H and that the QU-16 was fully USB3 compatible. Whilst a few people had issues is wasn’t widely reported and the cause had not been discovered.

I have been in private correspondence with a A&H engineer for quite a while and it was only after a few weeks of to-and-fro messages/email, offering various suggestions, that he found the Intel USB3 declaration and discovered that the issue was a particular function of USB3 that Intel have not taken from the USB3/USB2 standard.

This was very much after the horse had bolted. Very few high end laptops are do not have the Intel USB3 chipset and mine doesn’t allow you to ‘downgrade’ the USB3 to a USB2 ‘connection’.

I didn’t want a AMD processor and like I say, there was no indication it would be an issue.

My ‘old’ laptop is on it’s last legs and I didn’t want a failure when on the road so it made sense to be proactive and get something new in anticipation of the day when that happened.

It’s battery is going and it’s sealed so you can’t replace it very easily without actually taking the whole laptop apart.

The screen is a lower res than I would like and I now have touch screen aware apps that really make like easier when in the field.

Also, the ‘old; laptop has limited storage and whilst I could replace the SSD, SSDs in general don’t have the storage capacity I need. Also, DAWs apps are memory hungry and the new laptop has 16GB of physical memory where as the old one has 8GB and it can’t be expanded.

The new laptop has dual SSD and HD so it’s very fast to boot and has the storage capacity I need. It is also touch screen, lighter/slimmer and has longevity.

It’s horses for courses, and I use the laptop for so many other things.

I now am carrying two laptops to my gigs/events and when you have a car packed to the roof with other kit it’s just inconvenient.

As they say, hindsight is 20/20 and had I have know I may have taken a different path but I didn’t because, in all good faith, I believed there wouldn’t be an issue.

[BCEly]

Hi Bob

I appreciate what you are saying but I guess what trying to stress is that it shouldn’t be us [the end user] having to chase Intel over this it should be our supplier A&H. It’s in their interest and they will hit this backward compatibility thing more and more as USB2 ports disappear in favour of USB3 and USB3-C. The same will happen to desktops too and whilst there are USB2 cards available now, there won’t be forever. Use can’t get a USB1.1 card any more can you !!

Their whole QU range is affected by this issue and I’m guessing other high end A&H mixers have USB streaming that uses the same technology. If that is the case then those who spend the big bucks won’t

As for a USB2 port, I can’t put a USB2 port into a laptop !!

We all use these things in different ways, but my work is ‘live’ and I travel to venues and am not in a studio so I need a laptop.

[BCEly]

Hi TritonX

I think A&H are ducking the issue here and will do themselves no favours by doing so.

If anyone thinking of purchasing a QU-16/24 or 32 is reading this, DON’T until A&H address this USB3 issue and take responsibility for sorting it out.

It’s almost impossible to purchase a decent/powerful laptop these days with USB2 and most have Intel chip sets so this issue will only grow.

USB3 users have been left hung out to dry and just saying “It’s all Intels fault” does not progress the issue.

I doubt you’ll get anywhere with Intel – They have said they won’t be fixing this known issue with their lack of USB2 compatibility so A&H really need to find a work around.

I’m unsure what A&H do on any other of their mixers that offer USB support and similar functionality. It would be nice to know.

It would also be nice if they actually admitted this fault and made it public. If they don’t, I think we need to find influential people in the music industry who would champion the issue.

I have a mixer that cost over £1.5 and a Laptop that cost about the same – That’s £3K of kit that won’t work with each other and it’s very frustrating. I’m now using some old legacy laptop which really isn’t suited for job at hand.

[BCEly]

This is a recent email from Keith @ A&H Support…

We have found more information, but have no immediate solution.
It seems that although the specification calls for USB3.0 to be fully backwards compatible, Intel ‘broke’ compatibility with the real time streaming protocol when they implemented the xHCI driver.
I refer you to Errata #1 on page 15 of the following specification update from intel;
(https://www.intel.com/content/dam/www/public/us/en/documents/specification-updates/7-series-chipset-pch-spec-update.pdf)

The Qu is USB2.0, and has no issue with USB2.0 ports. This is dictated by hardware, so it is not a case of being able to get USB3.0 working, the issue is with the port driver.

We are looking at the firmware and seeing if the data can be sent in a different way, but this is a long process and will require a complete overhall of the USB interfacing – potentially breaking lots of other functions that would then need to be worked on too.

In the meantime, without downgrading your ports, I’m not sure what to suggest.
If I have any further information, I will be sure to let you know, and will therefore put this ticket ‘on hold’.

I’m sorry not to have more positive news at this time.

*******************************************************************************

So neither Intel or A&H can fix this. £1.2 on a laptop I can’t use !!

Not happy.

[BCEly]

Hi there

I’ve looked thru my bios settings (it’s a UEFI Bios) and there’s no way of disabling the USB3.

I think I’m on a hiding to nothing here!

[BCEly]

Thanks for the reply.

This laptop only has two USB3 ports and a USB-C port. If I disable USB3 (assuming I can via the BIOS) won’t I have no USB ports at all or will the ports then be treated as USB2?

[Author]

Posts